Scene #6179: This Present State of Grace pt.1

Owner	Pose
Morgan Berselius	A beacon begins transmitting from the blasted ass-end of the multiverse. Following it leads to a place called Othrys. This is a planet that can be called a habitable world in only the most generous sense of the phrase. Half of the globe is lit by a sun that has stopped its procession across the heavens, leaving the other half to freeze in eternal winter and neverending night. What remains of the sunlit half of the world is a barren wasteland pockmarked by the hollowed out corpses of cities and towns. Only a few signs of living human civilization remain, ekeing out an impossible existence from the dust and ruins. And across the world, at all corners, strange, alien forms shamble like enormous spiders, leaving scars of new and foreign physics in their wake. Inevitably, the world folds back over those wounds, pushed back by nature made mighty, cruel and insane. But the specific beacon in question leads to a particularly vile location, even for a place like this. At the foot of a crumbling mountain there is a marsh that seems to have collected an unfathomable quantity of poison, corruption and decay. There is a ruin of a mighty trade city close to its heart, and only the dilapidated highways built by that fallen civilization would allow foot-traffic to at all approach the source of the signal. Even then, it traversing that road- or making one's way through other means- would still fill a soul with dread. It's as if the swamp itself is watching for intruders. But eventually, you reach your destination. There, sitting where a ruined road ends and what looks like a half-collapsed mausoleum complex begins, is... Well. He's seen better days. There's a humanoid figure there, flanked by a pair of serpentine statues. Much of his body has been torn to bits and replaced with formless, writhing shadow. "Oh, hey," Morgan Berselius says, raising a hand to wave. "Glad to see someone showed up. I've got a job for you guys to help me with, if you're interested in maybe doing something to spruce up the place."
Aoko Aozaki	Aoko had not gotten off the right foot with Morgan. This was a chance to fix it! Or make up her mind. One or the other. That aside, trouble lures her regardless, so it really should surprise no one when the red-haired disaster appears. Well, not appears, just casually strolls in, sans her briefcase for once. Probably left that somewhere more secure. To say Aoko gladly intrudes on the marsh's domain is putting it lightly. Nevermind that odd aura of Not Human she has, it's as if she takes every step through with the deliberate intent to state 'I'm here, deal with it'. She comes to a stop near the mausoleum, looking down at Morgan. "Oh, geez, Foreigner sure messed you up, huh? Or was that Seventeen? I kind of zoned out."
Lezard Valeth	A place like this is what generally can be considered a 'fixer-upper' in the most generous of terms. Still, Lezard Valeth, Sorceror of Midgard, has been in some pretty foul places. This is certainly in the running, however, as the screech of a Harpy echoes through the air. Lezard arcs over the fetid, poisonous swamp on the back of the flying demon, flying in with a certain air, as if daring the swamp to try to oppose his passage. He has a good record against offending environmental features. The harpy lands, and Lezard approaches, his boots impacting the relatively clear and dry ground around the mausoleum. "A land of burning light and freezing shadow, where the very laws of the world are unravelling like a moth-eaten tapestry... I admit, this is not the first dying world I have visited, but it is certainly the one that seems to want to finish the job most aggressively." Lezard adjusts his glasses at that, and looks over Morgan. "You appear to be suffering from a certain case of... displacement, if I could venture such a thing." His gloved hands rub together, and he gestures towards the shadow-man. "So, tell us of this world. How can we assist, and what do you offer in return?"
Josuke Higashikata	Having already been to this world a handful of times, Josuke's expecting a lot of trouble. So he's wearing his 'rough going' outfit here, mostly shades of brown except the mock-neck sweater underneath, which is lime green. It helps if he can make the going easier, which he'll try to do. Of course, what that means for him, is trying to fix what he can along the way. So it's likely to take him a while to get there, since he has to stop every few feet to fix more of the road. That's OK though, it'll help others that need to get to or from anyplace on the road too. Once he finally does make it to mausoleum, he winces at Morgan's state. "Geez," he muttters. More clearly, he offers, "Do you want me to try to fix some of the damage?" Though of course, if there's word of something that needs done here, Josuke nods. "I'll help however I can," he agrees.
Nie Li	Nie Li's seen some crazy things. A world where the sun stands still is a new one though, and the dusty blast-furnace heat that blasted him after stepping free of the warp gate was enough to prompt him to quaff some heat resistance elixirs and bundle up with a cloak and tie some cloth around his head to cut down on the glare and filter out the dust and sand. So he looks like some kind of middle eastern desert raider when he arrives, dropping in from a speedy ninja-leap near the marsh with a THUMP and the noisy ruffle of cloth. Only a few locks of orange-red hair and his blue eyes are exposed. But he looks over Morgan... "Ah, it's you. What's with this habit of alway being torn up when I see you? This is two for two." Because the last time Nie Li saw Morgan, it was on Captain Flint's ship. And that day did not go well for Morgan exactly.
Morgan Berselius	"Hahahaaaa, little from column A, little from column B," Morgan answers. "Though I'm pretty sure I was unconscious by the time Seventeen finally got around to it, so I can't really be sure how much is one or the other." At least he seems to be taking it well enough? It's only a /little/ bit unsettling that he can be so lackadaisical while simultaneously missing the top-left quarter of his face. "I was pretty impressed by that magic you used back there though, Miss Red. That was some crazy high-tier stuff." He pushes himself back up as Lezard and Josuke arrive. The latter might have had to deal with a few jets of terrible swamp-stuff imbued with the raw malice of humankind on his way over though. "Hey, Josuke. It's fine, I'll be okay like this, I think. Besides, it'd cheapen what happened a bit if I just had you fix me back up." Beat. "Also the last time we uh, crossed the streams- so to speak- there was kind of an explosion. I'd rather not test my chances in the shape I am right now, yeah?" But then Lezard asks a thing, and the mottled shadow-guy sort of shrugs with his one missing shoulder. "Kind of yeah. More like I'm suffering from getting blown halfway to hell. Hurts like a bitch but what can you do? In my line of work, I end up getting beat up a /lot./ It's fine, I'm pretty durable. A-ny-way." Morgan glances between the newcomers. "You and Miss Red and Blue Eyes over there are new, and Josuke's heard this bit before, but... I'm Morgan, nice to meet you. Welcome to Othrys! It's my home. Also a massive garbage fire at the moment, but hopefully we'll be doing something about that." He keeps going. Does he even have lungs? He doesn't seem to be pausing to breathe. Though he /is/ missing part of his torso too right now. "Long story short, a few hundred years ago, these foreign gods we call Titans showed up and started trying to usurp the very laws of nature itself. You might have seen some of them on your way in. The local Pantheon took up arms and went to war. In the process, many of them went insane because of the measures they needed to take to match the might of the Titans. They then killed, sealed or enslaved anything that tried to stand in their way. Now humanity and the world is locked in an awful cold war between the surviving Titans and Gods, and the situation is /kind of bad./ I can't exactly promise much in the way of /reward/ per se, considering the state of things. But hey, if you want to help out, I'd be willing to discuss uhhh. Salvage rights." "And, if I recognize that voice," Morgan says, peering at Lezard, "The Titans need to be dealt with one way or another. You're free to take what you like from them, long as you don't use it to make things out here /worse./" "The thing behind me," Morgan thumbs over his shoulder, "Is a shrine to Ramu, a river god that used to be worshipped pretty widely around here. He was one of the ones the old gods cast down when they went crazy. Without his influence, the rivers went stagnant and fetid, becoming great big reservoirs of lingering malice. What I'm hoping to do here is maybe start the process of... Reassembling him, I guess is the best way to put it. You all in?"
Josuke Higashikata	Josuke nods to the decision. "No problem. Let me know if you change your mind." As for 'crossing the streams'? "Oh, uh. That was Hamon. I've been repairing things with <Crazy Diamond> I don't have to use them both." But he doesn't push further, he understands not cheapening an experience. He does know a little bit about the situation here, but he still listens to the 'are you with me so far' recap; a second telling may reveal more details, after all. Besides that, there's mention of what they're doing here. He looks at the building as Morgan indicates it. And as the question's asked, he nods. His agreement is almost instantaneous. "Anything that'll help this place, I'm all in for."
Lezard Valeth	Lezard taps his foot lightly as he listens to the explanation of just how everything's gone to hell. Almost literally. "The tidal lock of the world was quite the hint." Lezard says dryly about the garbage-fire nature of the situation. "Funny how these little tussles between gods always end up with these issues." He tilts his head, pondering visibly as things are laid out. "Salvage rights... I believe we could discuss such things. I did not expect you would have anything that would immediately act as a retainer regardless. This situation seems like it has some potential." He does, however, make a little bow to Morgan. "Lezard Valeth, Sorceror of Midgard. At your service, at least in this matter. Have no fear, I have no interest in destroying the world. It seems quite damaged enough as it is." But then there's the matter of the Plan. "The world is so damaged that water cannot even flow without the say-so of a god?" Lezard chuckles. "Well, that is something of a problem. I believe that I will help you reassemble this power... But if I may offer a suggestion? Why recreate him if he was not up to the task in the first place of remaining intact? Let us instead invest the power into something, perhaps, more permanent."
Aoko Aozaki	"Yeah, seemed pretty bad," Aoko comments. Though after a while of looking at Lezard, she grins and gets into the mood of it. "Sounds to me like you need some gods killed, but just Titans. Humanity's kind of caught in an awful crossfire. Guess I understand why you're so touchy about awful monsters and abominations now!" It does contextualize Morgan a lot, so that's good. "Miss Red, though? I think I'll stick to Aoko." She makes it a point to avoid talking about her little stunt, apparently. "Got enough color-based nicknames for now, ahah! So, reassembling a god... whatcha need for that? If it's mana you need, I can provide. If it's complex rituals, that's a bit outside my ballpark." Although, the idea of making a water god her familiar crosses her mind. Not a cat this time, cats are too... unpredictable. Indepedant. No, something else. Has to be cute and badass though. "OH MAN! A sharkgirl, yeah!" Aoko pauses. She laughs. "Did I say that out loud? Nevermind, nevermind! besides..." She looks at Lezard, ponderous. "His idea isn't bad, either. You leave that power in the hands of an existence above humans, you're making an awful gamble. We could make some cool water-controlling artifact and use it to fix the place!"
Nie Li	Nie Li's attention turns towards the distant ruins surrounded by LOTS OF YUCK while Morgan explains the local situation. Once again, he's found himself in a situation where he understands very little, which puts him in a spot he'd rather not be in. Still... his path forward requires constant courage. Just going home now? Unthinkable. "A reservoir of MALICE?" That phenomenon is somehow fascinating to Nie Li, as much as it is terrifying. He instantly grasps the concept being touted. Liquid malice. Now that's a DANGEROUS idea if he ever heard of one... can it be weaponized safely? Or is it a corrupting mess more trouble than it's worth? He'll have to snag some samples of that. Good thing he has the tools on hand! "I am Nie Li of the Heavenly Marks family, Partner of the Concord." He introduces himself to Morgan, pulling off some of the bandages and showing a face Morgan might remember, even if he never got his name. "We're operating far outside my specialty here. I'm listening if you've got ideas. That city over there looks worth checking out for those 'salvage rights' you mentioned." With the others around introducing themselves though, he takes note of them one after the other. And the moment his eyes fix on Aoko... His body just freezes. Eyes narrow. Something about her... is unsettling, to say the least. Even though she seems human. IS she human...? He forces himself to START BREATHING again... And boldly walks over to the redhead. "Something tells me you have it under control, but... Aoko? This area's looking pretty dangerous. Is that outfit sufficient protection? There's spare gear in my Interspatial Ring you could use if not." He's not about to outright say it, but this environment has got to be HELL for women. he's startled to see one going around dressed like that here...
Morgan Berselius	"Hahahaha, I knew I could count on you, Josuke. You're one of the good ones," Morgan laughs, and then winces as something grinds uncomfortably against something else inside the hollow of his chest. "I'll consider the offer. Might be worth while doing, but later. We've got something else on the plate to think about for now." Lezard, Aoko and Nie Li all introduce themselves so that the tattered patchwork man won't need to resort to increasingly creative nicknames. "Right. Got it. We'll hash things out, salvage-wise. But on the topic of Ramu-- and I guess the others in general, well." Morgan... Shrugs. "Just reassembling his power is one thing. Knowing how to manipulate it to properly adjudicate his domain is another, and it'd need to be a constant thing. Shoving it all into an artifact is a good idea to keep it all intact in the short-term, but--" Beat. "Um," Morgan stares at Aoko for a long moment. "Y-you know. Ramu is more of a snake than a fish. And... a guy." Poor Morgan. He knows too little about the strange quality of Aoko's native land to turn historically significant men into adorable and irresistably attractive waifs. "It's a good point in the short term though, I guess. If we restored Ramu properly, there's a risk that one of the others would just smash him to bits again. Until the time is right, I'd be amenable to finding a decent vessel to hide him in, but in the long term it'd be for the best if he'd be allowed to resume his duties. Gods around here don't just help nature do what it's supposed to do, they also... absorb and process all of the malice and resentment humanity tends to produce. That's always a good way to find where one's been buried, you see?" "I'm sure none of you want to sit around and make water flow for the rest of your lives, right?" With a gesture, the shadows thicken around the caved-in entrance to the shrine. "The idea I had in mind was to begin restoring whatever we're able, and to build a steadily growing bulwark against the other... Factions, I guess. This place used to sit at the confluence of several springs and glacial melt-waters, which is why I was thinking it'd be a halfway decent place to start, though I've got a few other ideas if it doesn't work out." The gathering shadows swell and push, shoving the mound of rubble out of the way. "Step one is to try and clear the swamp. And to begin to do that, we're going to have to head in there and see if we can't begin at least restoring the river's flow. Though I doubt the... stagnation will be willing to leave the land quietly." "So," he looks to the assembled elites as the path onwards is revealed. Immediately, the unsettling stench of corruption and malice begins to flow out from the unsealed temple. "You guys ready?"
Aoko Aozaki	"What if we just shoved the power into the land itself," Aoko ponders, though she taps her chin at the notion of snakes and fishes. "Hm... nah, a lamia'd be pretty gross... might be able to do something with fish." Ah well, we'll worry about that when we cross that bridge, right? She turns to look at Nie Li, grinning. "I'm good! It'll take more than some mean old little malice to get to me. The way you breathe, it's controlled, right?" She edges closer. Is she... feeling out his biceps? "Used to know someone who did a lot of martial arts, you know? Been a long while though. You've got that air about you too! Like you probably meditate a lot. Am I on the right track?" What's personal space, really? Oh, Morgan wants to get going. Aoko looks back towards him, giving Nie Li a respite from the invasive magus. "So, hang on, this malice, it's basically magical energy, right? Just, the bad kind?" She already has several bad ideas.
Josuke Higashikata	Josuke's fine with leaving things up to whatever is decided. For right now though, they do need to fix the original problem. He remains quiet for now as Morgan moves the rubble out of the way. He'll follow the group in, being sure to keep his attention on the environment. Since it's been his experience in the past that the very earth seems to want to attack people trying to fix it...
Lezard Valeth	Aoko's antics get a glance from Lezard. The casual behavior, the lack of attention to personal space... It reminds him a bit of someone else. He arches an eyebrow as she begins to check Nie Li out, but turns away, focusing on Morgan instead. We will have to find some solution to the problem. Simply doing what has failed before will result in the same thing happening again, and that is certianly no way to bring hope to the hopeless, hmm?" Lezard gestures at that, as if the answer was self-evident. "As far as the malice and resentment, we will have to look into that situation. Some ideas come to mind already." They might or might not be similar to those Nie Li and Aoko have. Morgan uncovers the entrance ot the temple, and Lezard adjusts his glasses. "This should prove to be most instructive. Let us proceed." Perhaps notably, he doesn't go first, looking expectantly at the more... muscular members ot the group.
Nie Li	Ack, Aoko's getting close! Nie Li's very controlled breathing does then halt in shock. What's this wild woman doing getting so close?! He is, though, just a boy. Far younger than Aoko! Li couldn't be, at most, much older than thirteen... All he can do is REAR BACK as she closes in, and try to maintain a LITTLE space! Gulp. He looks off to the side, laughs nervously... "It seems I was worried over nothing. Your perceptions are sharp as they come, miss." Indeed his breathing was very controlled, along with every movement he makes. Not a single step is haphazard or unmeasured. And then she finally releases him. He siiiiighs in relief and falls into step with the rest of the group after that, making sure to keep a half-decent distance between himself and the crazy redhead. She's interesting. But maybe he'd better take a different approach with her... For now though, he will stop by one of the TOXIC MALICE PUDDLES and manifest a few sealable glass bottles and tongs from his Interspatial Ring to take samples with. He's interested to see if this 'liquid malice' is acidic and melts through glass. If it is... no samples. But if the glass works, he'll seal the samples up with stoppers and store them back in his hammerspace-ring!
Morgan Berselius	Morgan stares between the ginger and the redhead. His stare is just kind of horrible and flat and altogether not particularly amused. Or maybe he's just /super/ amused and the fact that he's missing portions of his face means it's hard to properly convey resting catfais without simultaneously looking horribly maimed. "Hey, you two," Morgan says, "Stop flirting or you'll attract Malice Tentacles." Is he kidding? He might be kidding. (He's not kidding) As the party makes to move into the bowels of the earth and toward where the horrible accumulated gunk of humanity's suffering is most highly concentrated, Morgan pauses to whisper an aside into Nie's ear, except not really. He's clearly whispering loudly enough for everyone to hear, because teasing apparently vulnerable targets is one of the few passtimes he can allow himself to enjoy anymore. "If you're not careful, she'll turn you into a martial cat-girl or something." Beat. "It's a little more complicated than 'basically magical energy,'" Morgan explains as he starts ahead, little motes of ghostlight winking into being around him. He gestures to where veins of red-black awful are clearly throbbing across the stonework. "It's basically the aggregate foulness that ferments in human souls. Unrequited desires, self-loathing, depression, anxiety, self-doubt, guilt, obsession, lust. That kind of thing. The self-destructive aspects of humanity, given form by congealing with lingering soul-stuff and infecting whatever matter happens to be around." Incidentally, Nie is able to gather some into one of those vials... But as he begins moving closer to the shrine, he'll notice the fluid beginning to 'set roots,' spreading little creeping capillary veins through and into the glass. The temple is... Thick with the stuff, it seems. Similar patterns run in channels across what were once beautiful marble sculptures and artwork. The swampwater seems to have flowed into this place, flooding into ceremonial pools and fountains and rendering them profane and corrupt. The stench is terrible-- but then /your/ shadows seem to thicken, and the feeling of wrongness, the voice of the lizard hind-brain that screams of a danger of infection, disease and death all seem to fade somewhat. Not completely, but it feels... closer to what had been experienced outside. There, at the back of the shrine is a great gate... Upon which a terrible tumorous heart-structure seems to have taken root. Morgan regards it with a scowl. "We're going to need to start clearing this stuff out to proceed, unless you guys feel up to brute forcing it. I'm not /super/ confident I can protect you from what'd happen in my current state though. Unless you guys have any ideas, I can start trying to purge what's here. It won't go down easy though."
Aoko Aozaki	Aoko laughs as they walk along, specifically to Li. "Comes with time and experience! I don't have the whole self-discipline thing down, I can't control my breathing worth a damn, but I do have the basics of punching and kicking down. You'll be something to see in ten years!" she muses. Ah, well, time to focus on work. They progress through the swamp, reaching an old, broken temple filled with malice. Morgan explains what he knows of it, and Aoko uses her senses to fill in the gaps, taking in the magical nature of the place and taking it apart mentally. It's pretty bad, yeah... hm. Well, probably not beyond fixing, at least. And after having worked it out with Lezard... "Right, right! Let's see... I'm gonna need a funnel, but not a barrel for this one. Wouldn't want to accidently shoot all the bad into the atmosphere, ahaha!" Yeah, geez. Aoko closes her eyes and focuses, a series of bright blue magical circles spreading out underneath her. Above her, several more form, and the air seems to be getting sucked into a blue orb as if it were a vacuum. Motes of light begin rising from the ground, dark, black and red, but also blue, to get crunched together into the orb of magic. Something Lezard might notice is that she isn't just sucking up the malice in the land, she's also sucking up the magic. The swamp is going to be pretty mundane after the fact. Or at least, this part will be. "Whenever you're ready, mister L."
Lezard Valeth	Lezard doesn't seem to be dissuaded at the thought of Malice Tentacles. He does, however, simply walk along, stepping down into the tample. There is a deep breath as Lezard begins to feel that intense corruptive, vile force that seems to have seeped into the area. He doesn't step into the room proper. That would be... unwise. Instead, Aoko provides a question, and a plan to... expedite things. With a snap, Lezard manifests a book without title from a warp in space, and the pages open, flipping before him as he holds out his hands. "Prepare yourselves. This will likely be... interesting." A circle of power erupts around Lezard as he begins drawing upon immense magical energies, forming a ritualistic circle of glowing light within the room. "And do stay out of the circle." At that, his eyes narrow behing the glasses, and he reaches out to grasp the air. "Body, mind, soul. All are sheared away." The energies quiver, and the latent malice of the area is seized, as is the caterpillar indicated in question. The essence of the room churns as Lezard effectively cuts into the metaphysical nature of the room and begins to peel it away, lancing the festering malice like a boil and drawing it out. At least, whatever Aoko isn't trying to coopt for her own sorcery. "If to serve this purpose I shall be despised, my body scorched and blackened, so be it. If to serve this purpose I must command forbidden magicks, so be it!" The filhy corruption of the miasma is rapidly drawn towards the center of the circle, condensing into a singular sphere wrapped with bands of bright, chill blue aetheric power in an effort to keep it contained during the ritual. "Though my body may be tainted, though my soul may be tainted, I imbue thee with thought. I swear as the gods swear, and breathe life into the void!" As the energies increase to a roar, the centipede is drawn up, pulled into that blackened mass as the two are merged, the malicious power being forced into the insectoid vessel of the centipede. He has no idea if the thing can contain it, but if nothing else, all the problems will be in one place... With a flash, the ritual ends, and the results are released for good or for ill. Lezard, for his part, falls back, gasping from exertion and mopping sweat from his brow.
Nie Li	Nie Li FRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWNS at the freakish thing happening to his bottle. He is NOT putting that back into his Interspatial Ring, there's no TELLING what it might do. But he'll keep an eye on it, and keep it held via tongs, just to see what happens to the glass... All he can do is give an 'are you SERIOUS?' look to Morgan in return though, while following along. All through the trek, the boy doesn't seem to be bothered by the oppressive atmosphere. It's not as if it's not touching him. He just... isn't responding to it in any way. Like it simply slides off him. Is this really a young teen? Once inside the temple, he finds a ledge to set the glass and tongs down on. A glance is aimed at Aoko. Ten years? Ten years? He's something to see NOW. At least half-something. And as he lays eyes on the giant heart of darkness, and takes note of the impromptu plan for DEALING with the corruption here, she just might be able to see some of that. "Alright then. Let's see this magic of yours!" He's been looking forward to that much. Lezard's definitely not his type of person... he wouldn't want this guy sneaking up on him... but.. Now he can see that Lezard's boasting is hardly empty arrogance. The boy's eyes widen with a bit of well-deserved awe. With a deep breath, he begins to circulate Soul Force. A faint aura of glowing silvery light flows up around him. It's not a sign of weak Soul Force though. It's a sign that he can almost completely control it and prevent it from leaking. His muscles tense and ready for action. "What do you want to bet that the statue comes to life and tries to eat us?!"
Morgan Berselius	A plan is hatched over a quick and impromptu ten-line conversation, which is of course where all great plans are born. There is no better hatchery for amazing ideas than the crucible formed at the intersection of impulsiveness, wizard hubris and acceptable losses. And so Morgan doesn't do anything but sit back and watch and wonder and quietly urge his flesh to maybe please hurry and knit together faster because he's got the terrible nagging feeling that something bad is going to happen. Of course, there's no way anything bad could possibly happen here, right? Right! There's no way at all that taking an aggregate, materialized form of metaphysical taint, corruption and depravity and shoving it right into the body of a creature notorious throughout the multiverse for being SUPER CREEPY CRAWLY would at all go badly. Right. Yes. Definitely. The vile magic is swept upward, into the assortment of spheres Aoko forges. Clumps of corrupt ether coagulate over her arrays of magic circles. Already the air seems cleaner as the malice infecting the world is drawn away, compressed, condensed, contained. Lezard performs the next step, fusing together the suspended malice into a unified mass... And then plunging the whole lot of it into that unsuspecting centipede. For a moment, everything seems... Alright. The centipede squirms amidst the nexus of corrupt energies as the latter is forced down into the former. Finally, the insect goes quiet and limp, floating there amidst lingering motes of black and red and blue. Did it work? No. Unfortunately, we do not live in such a kind-hearted and considerate world. There's a terrible, keening, screeching /noise/ as profane energies begin spilling from the insect-- no. Not spilling. It's /drawing the stuff in./ Morgan leaps out of the way with a sudden and surprised hiss as a great tidal wave of fetid mud surges in through the front gate. It sweeps in, twisting up and around and /into/ the centipede, as if it had become a singularity of malice. Spectres of lives long-lost seem to try and reach out of the chaotic tide, but they are unable to escape. Their fate is sealed. The mud spreads and expands, forging itself into a centipede writ large. A massive, segmented body with hundreds of legs each dripping with unspeakable toxins. Miasma seeps from between sections of carapace, where human faces, bodies and limbs twist and writhe like a terrible fungal infestation. The whole thing terminates in two great gnawing maws-- which suddenly bursts and gives way on one end, birthing an abominable form into the world. It's a pale, bloated, stitched-together corpse. The fused form of a dozen bodies, joined at the waist to the still gnashing maw of the oversized insect. Its eyes flash a pale blue light before it unleashes a terrible scream and begins thrashing bodily at everything and everyone in close proximity. Its thirteen-armed humanoid torso-head whirls its limbs frantically, unleashing a storm of profane energies at the mages who dared to bring it into the world. "Well," Morgan grunts, compelling the shadows to grow even thicker around his allies. "Looks like it's going to be the hard way, then! I can't properly purify this thing until it's subdued!"
Aoko Aozaki	Aoko offers to high five Lezard. Whether he gets it or not, it's probably going to be halted by SUDDENLY, SUPERCENTIPEDE. With a... human torso head, magic, corpses sewn together into an abomination and... yeah this totally worked out. Aoko leaps back, taking her distances the moment that thing becomes a visible threat. She laughs, even though she probably really shouldn't. "On the record, I regret nothing!" It's her motto. That and 'oops'. Or maybe it's 'awesome, awesome!'. You know, one or the other. Or both. "So I'm thinking we duck out, go get a meal, and come back to deal with this when our only source of purification has his entire body available! And then we'll see what beating this thing up can do for us. Probably great things! Hey, can you all outrun a giant centipede?" She's pretty sure she can. Probably.
Nie Li	Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand the bug turns into a giant monster. Becasue of COURSE it does. Nie Li takes this development in stride. he'd been expecting it, after all! He lazily leaps away from the monster, drifting through the air with quick and practiced leaps to dodge the beast when it blasts past his region and zooms around. A feral, berserking creature is EASILY predicted after all. But still... "Ugly and nasty thing! ... This is what happens when you shove pure negative emotions into a creature...?!" Fascinating, but terrifying. Extremely nasty, to say the least. He's now VERY glad for donning that cloak for extra protection, since drops of POISON are now flying everywhere that thing goes! "Tch... it's just a wild animal..." With a mere thought, Nie Li summons a blade to hand. It manifests in a whirl of energy from his Interspatial Ring. a gleaming, otherworldly sword of a vivid blue coloration, one that's almost comically too big. Yet he has no trouble wielding the thing, hoisting it high over his head. Despite being INDOORS, THUNDER is heard as, outside, the weather changes. Dark storm clouds gather and swirl... But the blade in his hand, it sizzles with awakened power, gleaming with divine light and filling the air with the screech of electricity running wild. Stray bolts splash Nie Li'e surroundings as the light builds at the sword's tip, power gathering and congealing and compressing... He takes aim... and SWINGS the blade with all his might. Despite being far away from the beast, a HUGE crescent arc of ROILING LIGHTNING STORM flies through the air at the creature to shock-fry it into place!
Lezard Valeth	Norsemen don't high five. However, Lezard has been in the Multiverse long enough to understand the gesture, and he does give Aoko the requisite palm-slap as everything effectively worked precisely how he expected it to go. Which is /poorly/. But the benefit IS that almost all the horrific energy is concentrated in one place, right? Lezard, too, regrets nothing. As the horrible beast moves to assault him, pages fly out of his book, forming into a paper-thin dome of defense before him that nonetheless seems to be harder than iron. The assaults from the beast strike the barrier, The moment the attack passes, the pages drop back, and Lezard thrusts out a hand. "ICICLE EDGE!" He cries, and the beast is suddenly bombarded with a hail of murderously sharp and frigid blades. While it is a potent spell in its own right, the goal of course is to try to freeze the beast to give the others room to maneuver... And mabe time to seal the thing off for a few days.
Morgan Berselius	Of course wizard hubris playing around with horrible malevolent liquid is bound to create a terrifying kaiju. That's just science fact. It's an inevitable truth of the universe. Avoiding it was impossible. And yet, somehow, Morgan finds this more satisfactory than just going out and trying to purify an entire swamp's worth of Malice. Now the question is whether or not they're actually going to deal with it today. As far as Morgan is concerned, the answer to that is a definitive no. He is, after all, still missing several important body parts. Also they might want a few more bodies to deal with this thing. The others do their part to try and hold it at bay while the rest of the party retreats. Nie Li's lightning slams into the thing, coruscating in great leaping arcs across its many legs. Simultaneously, Lezard unleashes a furious fusillade of frigid force. The combination of electricity forcing it to convulse and the frost slowing its advance seem to buy enough time for Morgan to... Wrap a pair of tendrils around both of them and fling them out of the temple again just in time for a torrent of corrupt energy to blast out from within the shrine. The shadow-man amalgam grunts with exertion as he focuses on the door, collapsing the rubble back overtop of it and sealing the gaps with a wall of jet-black energies. "...That should hold it for a bit," he says, wiping at his brow. "I'll stick around and make sure it stays put until we can put it down. Problem is, it's probably going to take the time to grow fat on whatever Malice it can keep drawing in-- but that's something for Tomorrow Morgan to deal with." He looks to the others and... flashes a thumbs up. "Thanks, sped things up a lot like that. Uhhh, you guys might want to ask your friends to come down and help though. This could be a problem."